ONF took over the latest issue of IEEE Computer with six features focused on the deployments of SDN and how its components are maturing.
In the latest edition of IEEE Computer (November 2014), ONF contributed heavily to a special issue on “Software-Defined Networking: Standardization for Cloud Computing's Second Wave.” ONF leaders and member companies and friends collaborated on the content of the editorial and six articles, providing an overview of developments in SDN standardization and how components—devices, controllers, apps, service chains, NFV, and interfaces—and their standardization and testing are maturing. We’ve linked to each article below for your reading enjoyment and welcome your comments and feedback on these papers in the comments below.
Guest Editors’ Introduction
Guest editors Ying-Dar Lin, Dan Pitt, David Hausheer, Erica Johnson, and Yi-Bing Lin provide an overview of the special section, starting with cloud computing’s first wave and characterizing SDN as its second wave. They call out the need for standardization with its difference from previous practices, given the separation of forwarding and control, and highlight ONF and some other organizations that are leading the effort. You can get a great summary of the section here.
SDN and OpenFlow® Evolution: A Standards Perspective
In “SDN and OpenFlow® Evolution: A Standards Perspective,” the authors Jean Tourrilhes, Puneet Sharma, Sujata Banerjee, and Justin Pettit discuss how the SDN framework and the OpenFlow® protocol have evolved through ONF’s standardization process. It dives into the Extensibility Working Group and how its activities have led to the evolution of OpenFlow® through the compilation of use cases. Explore the SDN and OpenFlow® evolution here.
Aligning Technology and Market Drivers in an Open Source Standards Testing Program
Rick Bauer, Ron Milford, and Li Zhen agree that aligning economic, technological, and market drivers in the context of a standard like OpenFlow® can be challenging. ONF’s OpenFlow® Conformance Testing Program was designed to leverage both collaboration and competition among participants, ultimately helping to develop consumer confidence, industry competition, and trustworthy product validation. Read more about how it is possible to align technology and market drivers in a standard testing program here.
Service Function Chaining: Creating a Service Plane via Network Service Headers
New service deployments promise topological independence and elastic scaling of services. Paul Quinn and Jim Gulchard explain how network service headers create a standard data-plane format that creates a service plane network for service chaining. If you are interested in learning about both service function chaining and network service headers, you can find the full text here.
When Open Source Meets Network Control Planes
Software Defined Infrastructure (SDI) is a promising innovation aiming to open proprietary networking device interfaces to improve orchestration. The authors reflect back on the RouteFlow Project, which combines open-source IP routing stacks and OpenFlow® networks, as well as the operational experience of its use at a live Internet exchange. Christian Esteve Rothenberg, Roy Chua, Josh Bailey, Martin Winter, Carlos N.A. Correa, Sidney C. de Lucena, Marcos Rogerio Salvador, and Thomas D. Nadeau contributed to this paper. To find out more about open source and network control planes read more here.
Software-Defined Networks: Incremental Deployment with Panopticon
Many networks face challenges when making the switch and migrating from traditional platforms to SDN. There is an incremental approach that combines traditional switches with SDK switches through interim hybrid networks. This paper was authored by Marco Canini, Anja Feldmann, Dan Levin, Fabian Schaffert, and Stefan Schmid, and can be accessed here.
Virtualizing Network Functions in Home Networks
Home networks are based frequently on fairly low-cost devices that tend to fail a lot and require use intervention. NFV is being utilized in a new approach that aims to move the home network gateway to the cloud. Marion Dillon and Timothy Winters talk about this new approach to NFV. Interested in learning about this new approach? You can read the full article here.
-Dan Pitt, Executive Director
